🚀 go-pugleaf

This is normal in all NT-based systems, including Windows NT4, 2000
and XP.  Perhaps you should reconsider what you are using Word for, or
look for some other method to set linescreen (e.g. convert to PDF, use
Crackerjack).

Aandi Inston

That's wonderful the new OS and its not geared for NORMAL type of work. Sounds just great! But "in the future" programs (like the soon to be released QuarkXPress 6 -- geared to operate on Windows200 and Windows XP) have to "work" with programs like Photoshop, Acrobat 5, etc. Are used to create a product. This is clearly an attempt to "force" software programming to NT-based ways. There's absolutely no reason this has to be the case. That means screw ever using a NT-based program, like QuarkXPress 6. What's a person to do? Set up a computer to boot to Win98, then have to boot to WinXP? NO ONE CAN TELL ME this removing this adjusting of Halftone ruling couldn't be part of a postscript printer driver.

Not really sure I understand your point. Programs designed for
pre-press use like InDesign, Photoshop and QuarkXPress do generate
their own PostScript, and so can include halftone screen information.

What has been removed was the ability to set them in the driver, for
other programs.

What is it that NOBODY CAN TELL YOU?  That's how it is.

> This is clearly an attempt to "force" software programming to NT-based ways. 
What?

Aandi Inston

Sounds great. BUT a program like Adobe Acrobat 5.05 -- the latest great thing -- cannot output on XP but a high ruling. A PDF created out of QuarkXPress -- with a specific ruling -- is ignored out of Acrobat. Why do I have to compromise the creation of any file in any program?

"...this is clearly an attempt to "force" software programming to NT-based ways."

"That's how it is". Who made this determination of the way ALL programs will perform?

What is the problem of ANY program being able to output postscript files as they were intended? The world is not alway printing out to a imagesetter. EXPLAIN Acrobat, then. From a PDF you can't output the proper halftone ruling. I, "as a REAL user of PDFs, send to other printing outfits a PDF that's set up for their output. There should be no gymnastics for their using it. What would happen if THEY were using NT-based OS's? "Well, they could run it throught Crackerjack." That's BS! Why should my life have to adjust to NT-based "design". There's no logical reason why you can't have the ruling in printer drivers. "That's how it is" is not much of an answer. BACK TO WINDOW 98! NO SUCH B.S.!

Jeff,

The halftone settings were removed from the driver for a number of reasons.

First of all, virtually all PostScript laser printers totally ignore the halftoning settings anyway unless you use special settings to override the vendor-proprietary screening algorithms.

Secondly, for imagesetters (both for film and plate), these settings are normally done these days at the RIP, not within the PostScript job. Many RIPs are set to ignore the PostScript halftone settings.

Thirdly, even when these settings were available from the driver and if they weren't ignored by the RIP, they would be overriden by PostScript from the application program and/or by setting in EPS passed through the driver by applications programs.

Programs such as InDesign, PageMaker, and Quark which generate their own PostScript do allow setting of halftone information based upon options in the printer's PPD file.

Programs such as Word or even Acrobat do NOT set the halftone settings at all. What you get is what the printer itself choses unless you had specific images in a PDF file with halftone settings or in Word, you had images in EPS with halftone settings.

There are no plans whatsoever to change this behaviour of the Windows PostScript driver.

- Dov

>Sounds great. BUT a program like Adobe Acrobat 5.05 -- the latest great thing -- cannot output on XP but a high ruling. 

Acrobat is not, by itself, a complete pre-press tool. It will however
output screen rulings if the PDF contains them embedded. There are
plug-ins that allow specific settings.

>A PDF created out of QuarkXPress -- with a specific ruling -- is ignored out of Acrobat. 

That should work, and if it doesn't, I recommend you start a new
discussion in the Acrobat Windows forum.  Are you saying that Acrobat
behaves differently in Windows 98?
>
>"...this is clearly an attempt to "force" software programming to NT-based ways."
>
>"That's how it is". Who made this determination of the way ALL programs will perform?

Microsoft are responsible for the PostScript drivers.  However, this
is not relevant to Acrobat, which can set its own halftone ruling.

Aandi Inston

Mom and Pop, go to the store and buy a new computer. It has Windows XP installed. Now they by, let's say, a postscript laser printer. Hook it up. It don't work right. Why? because Mom and Pop don't understand that "That's the way it is". YOU TELL THEM WHAT'S THE PROBLEM! I don't sit around doing only PRE-PRESS. NO ONE DOES! Microsoft has screwed themself on this design. The REAL customer, is the "little" guy, the small home user. NOT big business. Now Mr. Bill Microsoft is FORCING us to stick with "older" OS's, because he hasn't a clue where the customers are coming from.

SCREW THIS! Back to Windows ME or 98! That works and "that's the way it is!"

Jeff,

Quite frankly, there are exceptionally few professional publishers who want these screen settings in the driver. They were taken out for good reason as I indicated in my previous posting, mainly because they either didn't work or weren't actually observed by the RIP. Furthermore, it often got the end user into more problems than they allegedly solved when they did work and were observed by the RIP.

You should note that comparable drivers on the Macintosh NEVER supported these types of settings.

- Dov

      You should note that comparable drivers on the > > Macintosh NEVER supported
      these types of settings.




In the old days, when a prepress firm used to drive it's own filmsetter directly from the Macintosh workstations, this typeof setting surely WAS supported.

But I do agree with you that in these days device specific parameters are better done by the device operators.

>In the old days, when a prepress firm used to drive it's own filmsetter directly from the Macintosh workstations, this typeof setting surely WAS supported.

No. It wasn't a driver setting. If a DTP application like QuarkXPress
or PageMaker was used it can do settings fine.

What puzzles me about Jeff's description - I assume has now gone off
to run old versions of Windows - is that he mentions Acrobat. Acrobat
has never used driver settings, it has only ever output the settings
embedded in PDF documents...

Aandi Inston